Exploration of the Pathologies in Mother-Headed Families

Abstract

Since we have witnessed an increase in the number of divorce and single-parent families, paying more attention to importance problems among mother-headed families that face multiple difficulties seems necessary. Therefore, this study was conducted with aim of exploration the pathologies in mother-headed families. This study was a qualitative research, in which the content analysis approach was applied. The research procedure consisted the participation of 38 mother-headed families in focus group discussion sessions, literature review and semi-structured interview by 10 researchers in the field of family in a 12 months period in 2016. To analyze the collected and registered data, they were coded in 3 phases of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. Data analysis led to extraction of the 12 main themes of problems and psychological disorders of mothers, physically problems of mothers, psychological problems and disorders of children, physically problems of children, children's educational problems, employment problems, interpersonal problems among family members, former husband and his family problems, financial problems, housing problems, problems of family of origin and problems of people around and social support networks. This study provided a new understanding of the experiences of mother-headed families by describing their problems. The roots of this problems in addition to individual and interpersonal problems, are in changes in social structure of our society. Therefore, results showed this families has significant problems in various aspects of their families that require more attention by authorities.

Keywords

• mother-headed families
• qualitative study
• pathologies of family